I recently wrote a post describing the annoyance I often feel with the techno-blogs which cover the upcoming advent of any new Apple product as if it were the second coming… Later this week I ran across a couple of related blog articles covering ACER and its upcoming implementation of tablet PCs.
It seems that the first article was a seeming misinterpretation of ACER’s strategic marketing plans to introduce Tablets along with their lineup of NetBooks. The second post is their attempt to get the record straight… To be honest, when compared to the massive amounts of theorizing and gossip associated with most Apple initiatives this comes off as sounding a bit naïve. The windows PC world has always dealt with their products as utilitarian labor saving devices.
Apple markets their products as if they are part of some radical social movement. The net result is that Apple has a lot of deeply involved adherents and most PC manufacturers have customers looking or the best price…
This is why there are so few fan boi’s of…let’s say, Dell computers…It has nothing to do with the utility, cost, or value any of their products possess; it is all about being part of some sort of a movement.
The upcoming deluge of Windows 7 tablet computers should signify a pervasive change in how all of us deal with computers (i.e. a pervasive
and fundamental change in how users input commands and data to computers…). But, because the iPad has taken up so much media coverage, it is as if there is no interest in these (likely more powerful and more general purpose) devices.
For me, while I certainly like using the iPad, and the upcoming iPad 2 may be an even bigger social development, I can certainly see that many people will wait to get a tablet.
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/18/acer-phasing-out-netbooks/
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/19/acer-netbooks-will-not-be-phased-out-sandy-bridge-tablets-not
